I was thinking about smells today.

I hope that if not all my senses are overdeveloped, at least my taste and smell are.

And Spring, oh Spring… the best season for smells… Trees are in bloom, smell of jasmine, lawn freshly cut…

My strawberries are also out in my garden in their most beautiful red dress… Just one black dot to my Spring story : snails !

I should be happy but I am a French who doesn’t like snails and especially now that they eat my strawberries ! And I am not talking about my courgette seedling which disappear and it’s the second one. I don’t know, I thought about my flatmate who is sometimes too enthusiastic and pulls up the wrong weeds (she snatched the beetroot last year!)

After asking her gently if she saw my courgette seedling she told me that her Asian basil disappeared too. So 2 conclusions, foxes love gardening and making organic farming is difficult. If anyone knows an organic way to make foxes and snails run away, please post me !

Talking about Spring, sun (not in London I know) and smell of green grass, I can’t help thinking of matcha tea.

I am on green tea diet for a few days now and planning a detox soon. Why ? Because I spent 5 days in Nice eating and drinking rosé wine and because with my job as a cook and food writer I need to experiment on myself as well. It will be my first detox ever, just for one day, only fruit and vegetables from breakfast to dinner and I am supposed to be able to exercise, feel lighter, have a clearer skin etc… Before talking about it, I have to try.

Before my Spring detox, I carry on with my green tea, even as a dessert

Matcha tea panna cotta 

Ingredients :

• 100 ml milk
• 250 ml cream
• 50 g sugar
• 1 big tsp of matcha tea powder
• 2 gelatin leaves

Method :

Mix the sugar and tea powder in a pan, pour the milk and cream on the top, put on the heat and stir till it nearly boiled. Before boiling take it out of the heat and let it infuse for a few minute. Meanwhile put the gelatin leaves in a bowl with cold water.

If the milk is not very hot, put it back on the heat, drain the gelatin leaves and plunge them in the milk. It has to be very hot if you want the gelatin to melt. Mix until the gelatin dissolves.

While still hot, pour the mix into bols or ramequins, let it cool down and put them in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

It’s creamy, with a pastel green color and a real taste of green herb, the taste of Spring !